‘Decide on claims of home-treated patients’: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on Thursday said a large number of insured patients were unable to receive any benefits under insurance policies held by them only because they could not be hospitalised on account of dearth of medical infrastructure. It asked the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to examine if claims in such cases could be considered by insurance companies.

The division bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh noted that thousands of Covid patients requiring hospitalisation, could not get hospitalised and had be treated at home by making their own arrangements for medical oxygen. “It is a matter of common knowledge and we can take judicial notice of the same that for about 3-4 weeks when the current wave of the pandemic was at its height, there was a shortage of hospital beds, not only in NCT of Delhi but all over the country. People suffering from Covid who required hospitalisation were also not able to secure hospital beds, much less ICU beds and ICU beds with ventilators,” said the court.

The court said the consideration by IRDA should take place in consultation with insurance companies.